"A Corner in the World" festival, Istanbul 2016. Credits: A Corner in the World.

Arab Cities: Changing Places, Changing Societies

A series of public meetings between architects, urban planners, and novelists aiming to create a dialogue between city planners and users about their perceptions of Arab cities today.

The De-colonizing Architecture project "Not New Now"

This project took the form of a one-month residency in Marrakech and investigated intersection among historical urban fabric, sociopolitical spaces, and cultural environments by interacting with the history of places and their contemporary inhabitants (or potential inhabitants).

Mada Encounters

Those seminars sought to identify new terrains in the production of alternative historical narratives, in opposition to the limited and exclusionary dominant narratives of Egyptian national history.

Intensive Dance Summer School

During this summer school, Palestinian and international dancers developed their technique and theoretical skills. With the aim of supporting the rise of a new generation of Palestinian contemporary dancers, this two-weeks workshop culminated in a small festival open to public.

Grantees

2018

GRANTS FOR ARTISTS

Locale (SD), a women-led collective, to produce a touring public program and exhibition of official and personal archives in multiple media to raise awareness around ownership of Sudanese visual culture and the reclamation of its histories and narratives.

Fairuz (BE/TN) to produce a collaborative documentary film presenting a portrait from inside one of Tunisia’s marginalized communities to multiply its stories, interrogate its realities, and go beyond eccentric preconceived images.

Tareq Rantisi (PL) to undertake ethnomusicological research into Kuwaiti traditional sawt and bahri music, and to create an accessible online repository of the various Arab percussion sounds and forms, leading to the production of a Kuwaiti experimental jazz album.

Louly Seif (EG) to collaboratively produce a performative video based on the lives of three lifelong female friends born in Cairo in the early 1950s, which explores enclaves of intimacy, friendship and sensuality in their past lives, at present, and in a potential future.

Noor Abed (PL), in collaboration with Mark Lotfy, for the post-production of an experimental film investigating preparations for war against terrorism, which has become the most urgent ideological national goal in the Arab region, questioning its embodiment in daily human performativity.

Makhzin(LB/EG/USA) for the publication of its issue “Dictationship”, which, through interviews in Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon, addresses language as a symptom of broader (economic, social, and historical) governing forces, and explores how literature offers grounds to reconfigure these forces.

The artists were selected from over 165 applications from across the Arab world and elsewhere, by a committee including Antonia Alampi (artistic co-director of SAVVY Contemporary, curator at Extra City Antwerp, and co-founder of Future Climates), Samah Hijawi (Jordanian visual artist living in Brussels), Christopher-Fares Koehler (German-Jordanian dramaturg at Maxim Gorki Theater and translator, living in Berlin), and Natasha Soobramanien (British writer living in Brussels).

2017

PARTICIPATION GRANTS

Ashkal Alwan in Beirut received support for artist Omar Adel to travel to its annual Home Works program.

The program “Social Choreographies – Personal and Social Relational Connectivity through African Dances” in Suceava and Bucharest received support for dancer Hend ElBalouty to perform.

Beirut’s Metropolis Art Cinema received support to bring over young filmmakers Aya El Lyboudy, Noha Elostaz, and Nada Moharam for the fourth edition of Talents Beirut.

Madrassa hosted arts manager Dina El Deeb at its program of curatorial research and practice in contemporary art, organized by Atelier de l’Observatoire in Casablanca.

The Harun Farocki Institute was able to bring over visual artists Assem Hendawi, Marianne Fahmy, and Nardeen Nabil in the workshop Farocki Now: A Temporary Academy in Berlin.

The Alexandria Library in Manchester received support for visual artist Mai Al Shazly to the opening of her solo show there.

Toronto’s Centre for Creative Music received support for musician Maurice Louca‘s participation in the world premiere of the Egyptian-Canadian contemporary orchestra Land of Kush.

Triangle France at La Friche Belle de Mai in Marseille received support for visual artist Fahmy Shahin‘s completion of a three-month residency there.

The Angoulême International Comics Festival received support for comics artists Farid Nagi and Karim Nawar‘s participation.

Dak’Art 2018 in Dakar received support for the participation of sound artist Yara Mekawei.

GRANTS FOR ARTISTS

Noor Abu Arafeh (PL), to produce a project dealing with two historical exhibitions of Palestinian art in Switzerland, from which the artworks never returned. It will investigate how these missing paintings, with the narratives and rumors they generate, become part of an alternative, imagined Palestinian art archive.

Rheim Alkadhi (IQ), to produce a new work exploring hallucinations as disruption of ordinary perception, interrogating reality through assorted visual anomalies like night vision, color variance, ingestion of hallucinogens, and various two-dimensional illusions and optical tricks.

Asmaa Azaizeh (PL), to organize a writing and translation workshop gathering international and Arab poets in Catalonia, resulting in the publication of a poetry anthology that transcends geopolitical and linguistic borders.

Nancy Naous (LB), to produce a dance performance exploring the social construction of the masculine body in patriarchal societies. Looking at rituals that glorify the male body, she re-questions the concept of masculinity by deconstructing those embodied social practices.

Lydia Ourahmane (AL), to produce a solo exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery in London raising questions about the legacy of colonization, the origins of violence, and the residue of trauma by tracing converging narratives from her personal history and oral testimonies from residents in the north of Algeria.

Sara Sallam (EG/NL), to produce a body of photographic work on the relationship between personal and collective mourning by probing historical, touristic, and archeological perceptions of death, the effects of nineteenth-century Egyptomania, and the ongoing immigration of pharoahs.

The selection committee included Karim-Yassin Goessinger (founder of the Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences), Rosaline Elbay (actor, screenwriter, playwright, and theater critic), Noura Al Khasawneh (co-founder of Spring Sessions and co-director of Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman), and Andrea Thal (artistic director of the Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo). *Not all committee members participated in the full selection.

Adel Khaled (IR/BE) for the post-production of his new documentary “Survivors of Firdous Square” about the late Iraqi artist Bassem Hamad.

Khaled Kaddal (EG)and Nisrine Mansour (LB) collaborate on “Syada” an audio-visual publication and a performative lecture researching one hundred years of Arab nation-building through official sonic and visual symbols.

Bassam El Baroni (EG)for Averroës and Images (working title), an installation that considers the relevance of philosopher Averroës’s thoughts on secularism using the Archivo F.X. – a vast collection of images and artefacts documenting key examples of iconoclasm in Spain.

Assem Hendawi (EG) for his photographic installation exploring the experience of army conscription through narratives based on factual and fictional stories.

marra.tein (LB) for a research project around how/when/why to engage the “digital” in academic/artistic research. It brings together practitioners to consider digital methodologies not only as outputs but as a central part of the process that re-formats research directions.

2016

GRANTS FOR ARTISTS

Mithkal Alzghair (SY) for his new performance/installation that attempts to embody the absurdity of war through experimentation with hanging bodies, bodies moved by an engine, bodies in counterweight, and more.

Yasmine Elmeleegy (EG) for the research and production of her exhibition exploring the concept of “repair”, and its relationship to the functionality of the contemporary city.

Goran Galic and Gian-Reto Gredig (CH) for their new video about an abandoned open-air cinema in the stone desert near Sharm el-Sheikh, which, for mysterious reasons, never screened a movie.

Sara Hamdy (EG) for an installation of audio and visual mappings of bird sounds recorded from different sites, along with poetic writings and lyrics exploring the mechanisms by which bird song transmits meaning as a “primary” language.

Dina Kafafy and Mai Elwakil (EG) for the project Medrar TV, a unique research and video archive on experiments in contemporary arts in the Arab region and by Arab artists living abroad.

Ash Moniz (CA)for a performative research project in which he will trace the history of the paper used for immigration documents in Cairo’s renowned administration building Mugamma El Tahrir, and create corresponding experiments in which the paper can reveal itself as an artefact of its own journey from production to distribution.

Btihal Remli (MA) for the production of a photography exhibition that visually narrates how the Atlas Mountain farmers cope with the tension between their traditions and the globalized market economy.

Azza Shaaban (EG) for the publication of her book, Dear Animal, in which she reflects on her trajectory through the life-changing experience of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution to her self-imposed retreat in India, by combining the exploratory spirit of travel books with a personal narrative of exile.

Karine Wehbé (LB)forher new publication, Stop Here for Happy Holidays, which explores the realities that connect the economic, political, and social conditions of architecture in the region through an investigation of the history of beach resorts in Lebanon.

Khouloud Yassine (LB) for the research and production of her new dance performance questioning the concept of authority – its visual symbols and constructed images – when it deteriorate both physically and metaphorically.

The selection committee of the above grantees included: Ali Cherri (video artist living in Beirut and Paris), Katerina Gregos (curator, writer and lecturer living in Brussels), Radouan Mriziga (dancer and choreographer living in Brussels), and Eckhard Thiemann (artistic director of Shubbak festival and associate artistic curator for CODA, Oslo International Dance festival).

Chrystèle Khodr (LB) and Wael Ali (SYR) for a theatrical performance based on an audio recording made by Khodr’s uncle during his migration from Lebanon to Sweden in 1976. By studying and reconstructing the experiences documented on this found cassette, Khodr and Ali reflect on the relationships between communication technology and the immigrant experience.

Jessika Khazrik’s (LB) for a site-specific play Countries Between Rivers: The Courses of Exile, using the Beirut River as a stage on which to explore the buried political histories that have allowed for its transformation into a dump, drawing connections between Beirut’s current trash and displacement crises.

Bryony Dunne (IE/EG) for Seeds from the Zoo, an exhibition of work organized by Townhouse gallery, Cairo, and the production of a photography book as part of the exhibition with texts by Egyptian writer and curator Sara El Adl, Egyptian photojournalist Hamada Elrasam, and Canadian investigative journalist Elle Kurancid.

Inas Halabi (PL) for her project The Authentic Bedouin, focused on Jordanian musical productions of the 1970s and the influence of Black September on the making of Jordanian national identity. This interdisciplinary art instillation will be exhibited in Amman and Jerusalem in 2017.

Oraib Toukan (JO) for her artist book that explores the contested history of architectural modernism in Palestine. Working with BookWorks in London and the 5th Riwaq Biennial in Ramallah, Toukan’s book plays with the visual narration of architectural history.

Wiam El-Tamami (EG/FR) for a year-long period of research and writing towards the production of For the Space Being, a book about the refugee crisis and her experience on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Fatih Gençkals (TU) for the performing arts festival “A Corner in the World Festival” in Istanbul, hosting productions by Middle Eastern artists.

The selection committee of the above grantees included: Amal Khalaf (Projects Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, London), Bouchra Ouizguen (choreographer and Artistic Director of Company O, Marrakech), November Paynter (Associate Director of Research and Programs at SALT, Istanbul) and Tirdad Zolghadr (independent writer, curator, and lecturer at the Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem).

GRANTEES FOR TEMPORARY SPACES OR PROJECTS

Arab Cities: Changing Places, Changing Societies organized by The Arab Center for Architecture (ACA) and Beyt el Kottab (International Writers’ House). ACA is a Beirut-based initiative working since 2008 to raise awareness about architecture and urbanism within civil society. Beyt el Kottab, founded in 2012, supports literary creation that explores critical social issues.

TheDe-colonizing Architecture project Not New Now by Sandi Hilal (PL) and Alessandro Petti (IT/PL) – architects and researchers in urbanism, presented at the 2016 Marrakech Biennale.

A Mada Encounters publicationstemming from a series of public seminars focused on Egyptian cultural history and memory, developed by Fouad Halbouni, anthropologist and Ismail Fayed, writer and editor with Mada Masr online news platform acting as partner and incubator.

The Intensive Dance Summer School organized by Sareyyet Ramallah in collaboration with Farah Saleh, dancer and choreographer and the artistic dance duo Siljeholm/Christophersen. Sareyyet Ramallah is a social development organization based in Ramallah, Siljeholm/Christophersen is a project-based non-profit dance company and organization based in Norway.

The selection committee included Rima Mokaiesh (former director of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut), November Paynter (associate director of research and programs, SALT, Istanbul), and Emily Pethick (director, The Showroom, London).

2015

GRANTS FOR ARTISTS

Alaa Abdelhamid (EG) for his project combining the publication of his text The Story of an Object with the creation of this same object in bronze and a new video featuring it.

Mounira Al Solh (LB) for her project I Strongly Believe in Our Right to Be Frivolous, for which she will produce portrait drawings and poetically fictionalized texts from individual stories of people who have had to flee their homes in Syria and settle in Lebanon and elsewhere.

Fehras Publishing Practices (Kenan Darwich, Omar Nicolas, and Sami Rustom) – a publisher and space established in Berlin in 2015 by a group of Syrian researchers, artists, and book designers – for their project When the Library was Stolen, in which they document and research the (partially stolen) private library of Syrian author and novelist Abd Al-Rahman Munif (1933–2004).

Jasmina Metwaly (EG), with filmmaker Philip Rizk, for their new project examining how the theatricality of law creates a system that determines how humans act within and outside given dogmas.

The selection committee included Anna Colin (associate curator, Fondation Galeries Lafayette, Paris, and co-director of Open School East, London), Corinne Diserens (curator and director of école supérieure des arts, Brussels, and president of the jury at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart), Hassan Khan (artist, musician, and writer, Cairo), and Mai Abu ElDahab on behalf of YATF.

Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari in support of his film Return to Jaffa.

Reem Shilleh and Subversive Film for the project The Syllabus taking place at the 5th Riwaq Biennial in Ramallah.

Lebanese artist and writer Raafat Majzoub for a three-month sabbatical to complete his novel The Perfumed Garden: An Autobiography of Another Arab World.

Jana Saleh from Lebanon for the production and presentation of the stage musical Aziza.

Egyptian contemporary dancers Noura Hassanien and Hend Samy to cover part of the costs of their scholarships to participate in ImPulsTanz in Vienna.

Belgian artist Sven Augustijnen for field research and filming in the Middle East for his project Fierté Nationale, for an exhibition at the Nicolas Ibraham Sursock Museum in Beirut.

Palestinian visual artist Yazan Khalili for his project Preventive Conservation, a new commission for the 5th Riwaq Biennial in Ramallah.

Egyptian architect and editor of Cairo Observer, Mohamed Elshahed, for the upcoming print issue of the journal.

Tashweesh, the Palestinian band, for a new production and presentation at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

Mophradat’s homepage hosts an editorial project that publishes new and existing texts related to contemporary art practices and the languages used to discuss them. Over the coming months, the art collective Nile Sunset Annex (NSA) has been commissioned to be our editorial voice. NSA selects an art-related word each month that has a twist when translated between Arabic and English, and are finding, creating, or commissioning a text in both languages that relates to the selected word. NSA’s process is intended as self-educational and the glossary, rather than being prescriptive, will question the terms and their uses in both languages. As NSA describes, “the conversations that arise in attempts to find common ground or agree on the significance or etymology of certain words can be a space of potential.” NSA is working on this glossary with translator Ziad Chakaroun.

Nile Sunset Annex (NSA) primarily functions as an art space that puts on monthly exhibitions of artists’ work in a spare room in an apartment in Garden City, Cairo, but it also acts as a publishing house, a contemporary art collection, an archivist, an artist, an author, a bartender, a curator, and an installation team. Founded in January 2013, NSA is still evolving.

Untitled: upturnedhouse was initially shown in New York, where it was installed in a very ad hoc way. This process had to be radically changed when it was agreed that it would be shown in the Carnegie. All its failings exploded into reality. The challenge was to retain its haphazard character, but to construct it as a permanent object. It was as if my love of the conflicting nature of making and un-making were being meticulously scrutinized as a badly told lie — I felt like a criminal whose devious activities were on trial. It was all for good, though; I have been giving my ways of making and un-making a tougher, mental acknowledgement. My works are now being shown more than once — something I do not have much experience with, since in the past my works have been shown and then destroyed, with some materials being salvaged for future use. Making more permanent works has made me more resilient and purposeful about my building and re-building methods. It can be gruelling, and yes, the resulting works are hard won, not necessarily always in a good way. I’m still hanging onto an uneasy relationship with whether the works are ever finished or not, because it generates excitement and uncertainty. I never know if more should be added or removed. I don’t doubt what I am doing, but I want the freedom to change my mind and to be able to undo today’s job tomorrow, regardless of whether it turns out well or badly. I want a fluid thinking process to be realized in the material reality of the work itself, to try and narrow the gap between thought and action.

Phyllida Barlow, in conversation with Vincent Fecteau in Bomb Magazine.